They had an operating income last year of $30.1M. And, it's due in large part to SportsTime Ohio's revenues according to this article.

Although both the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins were unsuccessful with attempts to launch RSNs in 2003 because they could not strike sufficient deals with carriers, the Cleveland Indians have shown that it is possible for a small market team to have its own network. The Indians started SportsTime Ohio in 2006, spurning a rights fee offer from Fox Sports Net Ohio in excess of $30 million per season. Although the Indians raked in less than $30 million in rights fees from SportsTime last year, team owner Larry Dolan and his family made a huge profit from their ownership of the RSN. Besides Indians games, STO programming includes coverage of the Browns, Ohio State, high school sports, the Mid-American Conference and golf.

Even though the Indians still rank 26th in Total Value among the 30 MLB teams, attendance jumped 30% for 2011 and the Indians average ticket price is 31% lower than the league average.

The team was valued at $353M last season.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

swerb wrote:My guess - the Indians didn't make 30 mill last year. And they aren't just "spending what they take in" and making no profit with the team.

Prolly making 10-15 mill a year on the team.

Agree with that. Rarely are the profits or losses as big as what's reported.

And btw, don't begrudge them making their money. It's kind of the point. They do need to understand their ability to make it is at at causally related to putting a comptetitive team on the field.

Or, at least, the more competitive the more money likely.

That is what I disagree with. They can easily put a number to what they will draw for attendance, no matter what. A base line. They can get pretty close to what their piece of all the revenue streams from MLB will be.

And every dollar they spend above that makes it harder to make as large of a profit, so they are fine with it.

If you believe they did not make $30M last year, then you have to believe they are almost assured of losing money this year with the payroll increase. They will receive less in revenue, tickets will be a near wash.

And I just do not believe they operate under a plan that will have them losing money at that level.

Of course, the thing that Forbes points out, that Pluto doesn't ask about nor Dolan volunteer, is the relationship between the Indians and STO. It's possible (and it's unclear whether the Indians do this), that the Indians sell their rights fees for a discount to STO.

Jumbo wrote:Of course, the thing that Forbes points out, that Pluto doesn't ask about nor Dolan volunteer, is the relationship between the Indians and STO. It's possible (and it's unclear whether the Indians do this), that the Indians sell their rights fees for a discount to STO.

Hard to blame Pluto for that.

I'd put the blame on whomever Pluto is poaching this week for his stories. You can't expect that lazy fuck to do anything on his own. Not to mention that since the Indians hand feed the decaying literary legend his stories and angles they may have left that piece out of the handout.